ABSTRACT
This study investigated the influence of
peer group on schools going adolescents in Ilorin East Local Government Area of
Kwara State.
Four hundred primary schools adolescents were randomly
selected to supply information on the research instrument tagged “Influence of Peer
Group Schools Going Adolescents Questionnaire (IPGSGAQ)”. Simple percentage was
used to analyse the personal information of the respondents while t-test
statistical method was employed to test all the hypotheses.
The result showed that male and female adolescents
perceived peer influence as having positive effect on children’s academic
performance. Also, significant difference existed between young and older adolescents
perception of peer influence on attitudes to class work.
Based on the result it was recommended that teachers
should develop keen interest in child’s attitudes in other to identify deviations.
In addition guidance and counselling services should be introduced in primary
schools in the local government.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS PAGE
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF TABLES viii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 6
Purpose of the Study 6
General Questions 7
Research Questions 7
Research Hypotheses 8
Significance of the Study 9
Delimitation of the Study 10
Definition of Terms Operational 10
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
Concept of Peer Group 12
Functions of Peers Group 18
Sources of Peers Group 21
Peers and Friends Influence 23
Summary of the Reviewed Literature 32
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD
Research Design 35
Population 35
Sample and Sampling Technique 36
Research Instrument 37
Validity of the Instrument 37
Reliability of the Instrument 38
Administration of the Instrument 38
Method of Data Analysis 39
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Presentation of Results 40
Hypotheses Testing 41
Discussion of the Findings 46
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary 51
Conclusion 52
Implications of the Study 52
Recommendations 53
Limitations to the Study 56
Suggestion for Further Studies 56
REFERENCES 57
APPENDIX 59
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Distribution of Respondents by Sex 40
Table 2: Distribution of respondent by Age 40
Table 3: Distribution of Respondents by Location 41
Table
4: Summary of the t-test calculations
on
the basis of Sex 42
Table
5: Summary of t-test Calculation on the
basis of age range 43
Table
6: Summary of t-test calculated on the
basis of location 44
Table
7: Summary of t-test calculation on the
basis Location 45
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
In every organized society in the
world, the youth occupy a vital position not only in the implementation of
community decisions and programmes but also in the socio economic, political
and educational developments of the area. The society acknowledges the role of
the peer group, there by attack certain responsibilities to it. Numerically,
the youths are significant in the society, and traditions and practice indicate
the level to which the society acknowledges the existence. Hence, the tradition
from one age group to the other is usually held amides funfair and celebration.
The
child grows in an affectionate society where his/her needs are relentlessly met
by not only the siblings but also by the religious and adult models around.
Therefore, the child enjoys abundant
love from his/her elders and age mates. The African society provides a terrain
where the child learns to associate with his/her age mates from infancy because
of the certain aspects of the traditions that prohibit the infiltration or
undue interference with adult discussion or conversation. Traditionally, the
child is scolded and stigmatized for unguided utterances in an adult dominated
discussion. Therefore this suggests that the child is trained to internalized
the values of his/her age group.
In
some traditions, rituals and initiations greeted the transition from one age
group to the other during which roles and responsibilities are ascribed to the
group. Therefore, the basis for peer relationship is sociological and
traditional to the unlimited support from the parents and notable individuals.
The peer relations continue and the infact establishes friendship based on
several variables. Kandel (1981) noted that similarly between friends could be
de to either assortative pairing in which friends are selected on the basis of
similarity or a socializations process in which friends influences each other.
The
next group the child encounters chronologically and probably in order of importance
for psychological development is the preschool play group of age-mate, in which
reciprocal relationships arise spontaneously from interaction without a
pre-extent social structure. Later, peer groups generally arise within and
centre in the school. In middle and late childhood, these groups tend to exert
little compelling behaviour control over the individual student, possibly
because his/her behaviour is largely controlled by family norms. Yet such play group
eventually comes to mirror the dynamics of social interaction and develop institutionalized
or traditionalized norms, values and relationships among members (Merei, 1989).
A sense of acceptance more than a sense of belonging characterizes normal
social development during this period of late childhood. According to Horrocks
and Buker (1991), they demonstrated that though friendships tend to fluctuate
markedly in late childhood, the degree of social acceptance expressed by the
group for the individual is not dependent upon the stability of his own
feeling-ships or group memberships.
Ausubel
(1984) regards the adolescent peer groups as the major training institution for
adolescent in our society, and suggested that the schools capacity for
influencing the adolescent lies in its capacity to provide occasions for the
inculcation of the peer culture. Common experience suggests the reality of the
adolescent peer group as a cohesive, dynamic socio-cultural unit, which
exercises behaviour control in matter of speech, dress and taste.
In
supplying a micro society with reciprocal relationships, the adolescent group
serves a valuable function in social development. Perhaps, because of the sheer
duration of its ascendancy, the adolescent culture is likely to become an even
more important testing and training with greater celebrity between adult
society, represented by parent and teachers and the adolescent micro society.
It
is important to note that at the childhood stage, the transition to the gang us
usually complete and with it the adoption of the gang values, manners and
speech patterns. Equally too, parents are distressed to find that their recent
loving and out-going child seems to have lost his or her affectionate and
confiding nature and become a stranger to the family. In one sense, the
immersion in being a child and the strong peer-group affiliation of the middle
years look time out from the process of development. The gang this serves as an
intermediate reference point and each member uphold and fortifies the others.
An
important structural feature of the peer group is the sex leverage the fact
that boys and girls tend to form separate groupings. The sex leverage is partly
a matter of differing tastes and interests and preferences, of course. But at a
very basic level it is bust into the childhood adult views on the inferiority
of the opposite sex. It is significant to note that peer influence is enormous
on the youth development including academic pursuits. This is the focus of the
study.
Statement of the Problem
Children
grow up in an environment where peer influence is enormous these relationship
extend to the school. Children are in various gangs and the school provides
ample opportunities for children from diversified socio-economic backgrounds to
interact and exert influence on their members’ perception, attitudes to school
and school work etc. usually, children display attitudes to school activities in
conformity to year norms. Hence, children’s attitudes to school work are
reflections of the peer values.
Purpose of the Study
The
study is designed to investigate the influence of peer group on school going
adolescents in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State and
specifically determines the peer influence on children’s attendance in the
school, observation of school rules and regulations, healthy rivalry in the
class and progress in the school work in the class and progress in the school
work in the class and progress in the school work. It also suggested ways to
channel peer influence on meaningful activities.
General Question
Do peer group influence on school
going adolescents?
Research Questions
Therefore, the study attempted to
provide answers to the following questions: -
1.
Is
there any difference in the influence of peer group on the male and female
school going adolescent?
2.
Is
there any difference in the influence of peer group on the young and old school
going adolescents?
3.
Is
there any difference in the influence of peer group on the urban and rural
school going adolescents?
4.
Is
there any difference in the influence of peer group on school going adolescents
from literate and illiterate homes?
Research Hypotheses
H01: There is no significant difference in the influence of
peer group on the male and female school going adolescents in Ilorin East Local
Government Area.
H02: There is no significant difference in the influence of
peer group on the young and old school going adolescents in Ilorin East Local Government
Area.
H03: There is no significant difference in the influence of
peer group on the urban and rural school going adolescents in Ilorin East Local
Government Area.
H04: There is no significant difference in the influence of
peer group adolescents from literate and illiterate home.
Significance of the Study
A
study on influence of peer group on school going adolescents is significant at
this time when there is great decline on children’s attitudes to schools work,
and involvement in school related problems. Therefore, the findings would be
immense contributions or benefits to teachers, parent, adolescents, school
counsellors and school administrators.
The
findings would assist the teachers in their relationships with the adolescents
in order to enable them pursue their academic pursuits accordingly. The adolescents
would be assisted in their relationships with other collogues so that their
aspirations could be achieved. Also, the school administrators would be able to
use the finding to provide a suitable and comfortable school environment
capable of maximizing adolescents. Potentials, in the same vein, the school
counsellor would use the findings to provide professional assistance to the needy
children.
Delimitations to the Study
The study investigated the influence
of peer group on the school going adolescents in Ilorin East Local Government
Area. It involved the randomly selected adolescents in selected schools in the
local government area. The study is also interested in the variables of gender,
age group, school location and parents’ education. It is however, limited to
the respondents who responded to the questionnaire.
Definition of Terms (Operational
Definitions)
Adolescent: This refers to a person who is either
a male or a female between childhood and maturity age. He is neither a child
nor an adult but he is in between and, most the body structure has developed.
Adolescents: Are children in primary schools
Influence: Signifies impact
Older Adolescents: Are children aged 9 years and above.
Peer Group: Implies association of lads according
to age
Performance: Connotes involvement of children in
class activities.
Young Adolescents: Are children aged 6 to 8 years
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